Ishrat case: senior Gujarat cop PP Pandey moves HC

Additional director general of Gujarat Police PP Pandey has moved the high court, seeking quashing of the FIR filed against him by CBI in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter killing case.

A special CBI court had on Saturday passed an order proclaiming Pandey an absconder under the Criminal Procedure Code and directing him to appear before the court by July 31 to avoid further action.

Pruthvi Pal Pandey, a 1982-batch IPS officer, has filed the petition through his lawyer Manav Mehta. CBI is probing the allegedly fake encounter killing on the high court's order.

Hearing on Pandey's petition is likely on Monday.

The FIR alleges he provided the "so-called crucial intelligence inputs" to the fellow officers which said that Ishrat, a college student, and three others were LeT operatives and were on a mission to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Pandey, as the Joint Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad, was heading the crime branch when Ishrat, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in the encounter with the Gujarat police on the outskirts of city on June 15, 2004.

Pandey has claimed in the petition that Rana, Shaikh and Johar were "terrorists" and were killed in a "genuine encounter" and hence he should not be made an accused.

He also alleges Gujarat cadre IPS officer Satish Verma, who has been directed by the HC to assist CBI in this case, was "bent upon" framing him because of "personal animosity".

Incidentally, as per High Court's order, services of Verma, who has been at loggerheads with the state government since his involvement in the probe, will not be available to CBI from June 24. He has been directed to return to state government duties.

Earlier this month Pandey had moved the Supreme Court, but it asked him to seek relief from Gujarat high court.